NAHB International Builders' Show
Start-Up Zone
Josh Dorfman
Co-Founder and Advisor
Josh is a sustainability entrepreneur and environmental advocate who has built ventures spanning tech, media, and manufacturing. Previously, Josh led Vine.com, an Amazon business specializing in natural, organic, and sustainable products. He has founded two modern design furniture companies: Vivavi, named to Inc. Magazine's "Green 50" as a pioneer accelerating the green economy, and Simbly, recognized by the National Wildlife Federation for its practices to preserve forest ecosystems. Josh was CEO of The Collider, the nation's first innovation center for climate resilience and adaptation solutions.
Josh is also known for his role as author and host of “The Lazy Environmentalist” reality TV series on Sundance Channel, radio show on SiriusXM, and book series, making everyday sustainable living convenient, clever, and stress-free. He currently serves on Governor Cooper's North Carolina Entrepreneurship Council.
Josh holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Huade Tan
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Huade is a principles-driven engineer who thrives at bringing people together to solve multidisciplinary problems. At SpaceX, Huade led the engineering team that designed portions of the environmental control and life support systems, mechanisms, and primary structure of the cargo and crew Dragon spacecraft. He has taken ideas from napkin sketch to flight hardware through all aspects of the design, development, and testing processes culminating in the return of NASA astronauts to the international space station from US soil.
Huade's engineering career began with global single and three-phase motor protector applications for the automotive and commercial compressors industries while at Sensata Technologies.
Huade holds an MS, MPh, and BS from the University of Notre Dame, Columbia University, and Boston University, respectively.
Nathan Silvernail
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Nathan is a highly accomplished entrepreneur and engineer with a passion for innovation. At SpaceX, he led the team that built life support systems for astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Nathan has also built launch vehicles, ground support equipment, and large composite structures. He made history by building the first payload fairing recovered from space and reused on a later mission.
In addition to his work at SpaceX, Nathan founded a company that designed, built, and flew reduced gravity experiments onboard NASA's zero gravity simulation aircraft. He has received recognition for his work in the industry, including the Emerging Space Leaders Grant and the First Suborbital Research Flight with Virgin Galactic.
Nathan holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering and BS in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.